Out of curiosity which country, culture or civilization would you rate as the most unhygenic? From what I've heard Elizabethan London sounds like it was really dirty and unhygenic. For what it's worth, by unhygenic I more specifically mean, bathing habits, sanitary habits and level of cleanliness. To avoid the risk of offending people I'm not talking about cultures or countries in the present day.
Most unhygenic cultures/civilizations
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sophie
Break My Heart
Degree of cleanliness is rather a relative (and subjective) measurement, though isn't it?
Most pre-modern societies would have been considered unhygenic by modern standards. Even societies we might consider hygenic. The Roman baths were breeding grounds for all forms of bacteria.
One idea might be early Industrial Age England. In addition to sewage problems, you have coal plants polluting the water and horse manure (and worse) in the streets. Slum children would often work by going through the garbage looking for small items that could be sold. London in those days was horrible with a very high death rate from disease.
In general, early urban civilizations would be more unhygenic. This isn't necessarily the case now, but it was then.
One idea might be early Industrial Age England. In addition to sewage problems, you have coal plants polluting the water and horse manure (and worse) in the streets. Slum children would often work by going through the garbage looking for small items that could be sold. London in those days was horrible with a very high death rate from disease.
In general, early urban civilizations would be more unhygenic. This isn't necessarily the case now, but it was then.
innonimatu
the resident Cassandra
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Almost surely, but they did use lots of running water. And the only advantage modern public baths have on the ancient ones is chlorine.
Anyway, the most disgustingly unhygienic one would be 18th century Europe, where people deliberately avoided taking a bath, even the wealthy nobles!
Srsly?????
rugbyLEAGUEfan
Deity
Iraqis were so dirty that the Ba'ath party was formed to encourage people to change their habits .
aukrest
History Buff
How about the nomadic Mongols, Turks and Tatars? I can't imagine that any of those societies were particularly hygenic.
NedimNapoleon
Weird Little Human
Mayans, I think they sacrificed people and thew the bodies into the water supply.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
Actually, that's only been confirmed as occurring at a single site, and that particular cenote (a kind of sinkhole found in the Yucatan peninsula) wasn't used as a water-source, but was maintained as a purely religious location.
LightSpectra
me autem minui
Presumably any non-nomadic society that had neither running water nor a wide-spread sewage system could be qualified as the "most unhygenic." So the best way to go about this is to catalog all of those civilizations, which would be a lot of them, and then determine from there any specific traits that would make them be more unhygenic, i.e. cultural practices such as cannibalism.
innonimatu
the resident Cassandra
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Common joke, though I don't know any source backing it. But yes, there was a belief, particularly among the nobility, that bathing was unhealthy! But they didn't appreciate their stench either, so the perfumers had a very nice business going.
ParkCungHee
Deity
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It makes a good deal of sense. When water was not purified, and there was limited indoor heating, people who took baths frequently tended to get sick.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
Although it was possible even then, as demonstrated by the Norse managed to maintain a weekly bathing schedule so rigorous that the etymological roots of the various modern Nordic names for Saturday are all in the Old Norse for "bath-day". I'm guessing the trick was to live near a source of clean, fresh water on the one hand, and to have a good warm dwelling to retreat to on the other. (And I'm willing to bet that even the Norse let things slip a bit in the winter.)
innonimatu
the resident Cassandra
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Perhaps, in the cities at least. Still, I'm not convinced that nobles couldn't afford heating and clean water, if they wanted. The 17th and 18th centuries even saw a lot of new aqueducts being built (or rebuilt) to supply Europe's major cities with clean water. Certainly not enough to supply the people's households with baths, but the wealthy should have had enough clean water.
Thermal baths did continue to be used throughout the middle ages, before having a kind of renaissance starting in the late 18th century, but they were associated with medical treatments. Bathing just for the pleasure of it really seems to have fallen out of cultural mores until the 19th century. I know that was the case in Portugal at least, I don't know about the rest of Europe.
sydhe
King of Kongs
There was a theory for a long time in Western Europe that opening the pores of the skin would open your body to disease, and frequent bathing would make you weak. Also there was the idea that public baths would encourage sinfulness. The Christian era was pretty smelly for a long time.
CELTICEMPIRE
Zulu Conqueror
the Lisu people in China were pretty dirty.
LightSpectra
me autem minui
That's partly true. Public baths essentially became red light districts at some point, and so for purely cultural reasons it was suggested that people of good reputation not associate themselves with them.
MilesGregarius
Half-baked Renegade
Care to elaborate?
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